Obstacle:PlaceName> Island:PlaceType>:place> Trip Report
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You say "Two days later, we almost bumped into a sow and cub while checking out the campsite on Obstacle Island" Well, we camped at Obstacle Island in July of that year and encountered a mother bear right where you did. Our bear didn't come into the site until after we turned in. She had three cubs when we were there, but they were sore pressed in the drought. One was very small. She shooed them up a tree then walked right in between our two tents to rummage in our food packs. We had not been in the habit of hanging them for years. I thought it was raccoons, so I went out to investigate. That was when I saw three sets of little beady eyes in the tree behind my tent. I really thought they were raccoons at first. This was wishful thinking. When I turned around there was a quite large female black bear in our "kitchen" not far from me. I yelled a lot and she fled with a 33L olive jar full of food and my stove.
We broke camp at 12 or 1 in the pitch black, the moon hadn't risen yet, then finding no other possible site, we set up one two-man tent, for three men and a dog, on the dock at the south end of the tramway.
We ran into the bears the next day when we went back to recover the barrel and stove and clean up what mess she had left of the food wrap and etceteras. She ate 12 servings of dry tortellini and 2 litres of olive oil. In daylight I realized that she was the biggest female black bear I had ever seen. She was never aggressive toward us however. In fact I think I chased her out of her den area when we were searching for the remains of our barrel.
Below is a photo of the recovered barrel, a prize possession of mine, and also my tent on the dock with the dog still in it.
We once again have taken up the practice of hanging packs, but I must admit that the following year I cracked a rib taking a pack down from a tree so this may be more dangerous than bear encounters.
Dave McKay Submitted February 13, 2006
